Alicia’s Comments (group member since Dec 25, 2019)

Alicia’s comments from the Around the Year in 52 Books group.

I think the wording of this second chances prompt was Sara’s original. And the description in the second post talks about rereading authors or books.

I know we have word masters, but not sure how “deals with” excludes books and authors we are giving second chances to.

For those that loved Scandium, that can always be the prompt you use for the one that didn't make it!

Here are some listopias for the under-represented queer identity (TQIA+)

Popsugar Book By Trans/Non-Binary Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Enby/Trans Spec Authors: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

Fiction and Memoirs: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3...

YA Fiction : https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/7...

I can’t remember how I voted on comfort read, but upvoted the other 3!!

For the “prompt that didn’t make it in”, I think a way to make it tougher is to pick a prompt now (or after voting) and stick to it. Then the prompt can be as hard or easy as you want. This year, I wasn’t part of voting so it was definitely a freebie where I picked a book and found a prompt that matched. But I’m glad that next year I’m more invested to pick one ahead of time.

Bryony wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Is anyone else not getting notifications for this topic, despite being signed up? I was wondering why everyone was so quiet!"

It’s not just this topic, notifications don’t seem to b..."

Thanks Byrony! This is definitely frustrating. I feel like the Suggestions and Voting thread are going to be weird this week because of this.

Good thing I thought to check, but I could see others being confused as well.

Is anyone else not getting notifications for this topic, despite being signed up? I was wondering why everyone was so quiet!

dalex wrote: "I think we should have a listopia for the villain prompt because some people want ideas. If you don’t want spoilers don’t look at the list."

I agree we should have a listopia, but I don't think it's too hard to ask people to not put spoilers on there.

I think saying just don't look at it is a bit dismissive of people that rely on listopias for most of their prompts or want suggestions on finding new books they may not know about, but still don't want to be spoiled.

That’s my biggest worry with this prompt and the listopia. But I still voted it.

Maybe we can put a warning re: spoilers under the listopia title for those that don’t follow the discussion?


I also have such a GREAT book for this, but I can’t tell anyone what it is. I just have to hope someone reads it and wants to discuss next year.

Exactly! Five is the best example for this!

I loved both seasons so much, and have never read the books. I have never read a graphic novel, so I'm glad this will be my first!

Nadine wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Then save our deck prompt for Umbrella Academy...."


I missed this! How does The Umbrella Academy fit the deck of cards?"

Because the kids are named #1, #2, ..., #7, I thought it was a creative way to use the tougher cards, numbers, in the deck. Their other names were given later by their "robot mother", but their dad still calls them by their number names.

I love the tarot card meanings. Similar to how some are doing a separate prompt for NATO, I think I’m going to do one with all the different tarot cards. Then save our deck prompt for Umbrella Academy.

Ooh Hannah, great idea! Or a duology. I've been meaning to read King of Scars and Rule of Wolves

Ooh I like “In the beginning”. Especially with the Wikipedia. For tv shows it could be a book with a serial killer (Dexter), fantasy and/or vampires (Supernatural and True Blood), LGBT love (Dante’s Cove), or sci-if (Secret Adventures of Jules Verne)

Ok, so I ended up doing 7 upvotes and 1 downvote:

- a book about books (I always love a good book about a library)

- a book from a suggestion that didn't make the list (this was a bit of a freebie for me this year, since I was part of voting. But next year, I'll pick the prompt ahead of time. Also, my rejects challenge this year was also more challenging than I thought

- a collection of short stories/essays/poetry (just generally love this category

- book related to Scandium (I was nervous it was just metal and chemistry. Both of which I have nothing about, but this discussion swayed me to new ideas)

- Readers Enjoyed (maybe it's just me but my list that came up was actually pretty on point with a good amount of other 4 and 5 star reviews. I actually didn't know about this feature before)

- female villain (slightly nervous about being spoiled by this, but I'm still really excited)

- 2-1 syllables


My only downvote was character list/family tree (Half my books each year are audiobooks, and those don't read these sections of books. Also, I know I can go on amazon and preview each book, but that seems like a tedious exercise for little exciting value)

Ok ok Nadine’s creativity just changed Scandium from a downvote to an upvote for me. I couldn’t think of anything with a baseball bat or bicycles and got stressed.

There’s also the two-one syllables prompt available for voting. I love that one!

Beth wrote: "The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper would be a good option for the 'story behind the story' prompt. It is one of my few 5 star reads this year."

I absolutely hated that book lol


But I did go through my TBR. Would any of these count as story behind a story? Feel free to completely tell me I'm way off. Because that's very possible.
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
The Meaning of Mariah Carey - I know I know but she's a goddess.

Emily announced, I think in the Wild Discussion, that the prompts that have fallen under the "Close Call" bucket for the last 16 polls (including this one) will be put together for us to vote on. So instead of switching immediately to Poll 17, we'll jump to the Close Call Poll.

Close Calls are prompt that were really close to being in the top, but missed it by a few votes. So they almost were on our list, but just didn't quite make it.

You can see those, and others that didn't make it in, in this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I don't know if I love this list as much as others, but I definitely see some immediate favs. (Maybe I'm subconsciously saving all my happy thoughts for our Close Call poll next time!)

On first glance, my definite upvotes are (1) a book about books (2) collection of short stories/essays/poetry (3) female villain - this is so wonderful and juicy (4) and the syllables book.

My only immediate downvote is Scandium. I think my only option would be a book set in or an author from Scandanavia. Not impossible, but not necessarily thrilling.

The other 3 will definitely be based on the discussion. I'll admit I'm also still confused on how I would use "story behind the story". I'll have to really review my TBR and follow the recommendations on this thread.

I’ll second a book about books!!